Dellis Cay: Starchitects in the Turks & Caicos archipielago

Super star architects arrive to the Caribbean, specifically to Dellis Cay,  a 560-acre island at the Turks & Caicos archipielago. The project, set to be completed by 2010, will feature works by Shigeru Ban, David Chipperfield, Carl Ettensperger, Zaha Hadid, Kengo Kuma, Piero Lissoni, and Chad Oppenheim. In addition to the 124 villas and 154 residences, the island will have a 30,000 sq ft Spa operated by the Mandarin Oriental, a five star luxury hotel, a signature restaurant and numerous casual dining experiences.

Below you can see further images of the individual projects, done by d-box.  There aren´t too many images available, but you can certainly notice the hand of each architect on this projects, specially the Zaha and Chipperfield ones.

From this project, two houses took my attention. First, a house by Chad Oppenheim, pictured above. I really like the public area of this house, which reminds me of contemporary brazilian houses: A unique concrete volume covering the open public space and an enclosed area for the bedrooms. You can really feel outside while being covered by the structure, which has a big span with no elements that block the views.

The other project that i liked is the Spa designed by Kengo Kuma. At first glance it looks like a typical structure, almost like a barn. But as you can see on the above images, the wood work acts as a filter between the inside and the outside on a very subtle way, giving privacy to the spa while integrating with the surroundings.

House by Zaha Hadid:

House by David Chipperfield:

House by Carl Ettensperger:

House by Shigeru Ban:

Map of the island, you can also check the archipielago on Google Maps: